IF the women's Premier League Hockey competition does go ahead this season, Souths coach Chris Stafford is adamant that a finals series and premiership trophy must be included.
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It's a finals series Souths is determined to be part of and they have a returning star - Sarah Watterson - to help them in that quest.
Prior to the 2020 season being put on hold due to the coronavirus, Stafford had agreed to return as coach.
Though Souths had not kicked their preparations into top gear, the squad was buoyed by its new recruits. It included Australian Country representative Watterson, who spent the past two seasons playing with St Pat's.
"We hadn't done a great deal with our pre-season, but we had a few new girls come in, so we were getting keen," Stafford said.
"We picked up a couple of girls from Zig Zag after they folded and we picked up a couple from Pat's, Emma White and Sarah Watterson, and they're both very handy.
"It did look like we'd lost Sophie McCauley, but due to the shutdowns with universities, it looks like she is back in town. So we're not looking too bad."
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With a July 18 target set for the start of the season, Premier League Hockey president Michelle Stevenson has called on clubs to offer their opinion about the format of 2020.
Stafford thinks a premiership trophy being on the line is vital.
"My first thought was there's no point that if you can fit a season in - I know it's not going to be a full season and everything is going to be a bit different - to not be playing for a premiership," he said.
"That's why you play that level because you do have that competitiveness and will to win. If you're not feeding that, it's going to be a bit hard to get up and get out there each week.
"We have to play for a premiership and if it's a shortened season it wouldn't mean any less to us."
The hunger of Stafford, and his squad, to see a finals series conducted is easy to understand given the two blues have not appeared in the semi-finals since 2015.
Last season the two blues did make a good start to their campaign, losing just one game on-field over the first five rounds. But Souths was stripped points for using an unregistered player and ultimately ended up placing sixth.
It's a position Stafford feels they can improve on in 2020 if given the opportunity.
"Last year was tough, we kicked off with two wins and there was a lot of excitement around the team, but then we lost all our points due to my stupid mistake and that had us chasing," he said.
"They definitely haven't been where they'd like to be for a fair while, semi-finals are what you want to be playing. But we've got some girls who stepped up through last year and definitely at the end of last year and I'm expecting pretty big things from them this year.
"We struggled to put the ball in the back of the net last year. Our defence was really strong but we struggled to score goals, so hopefully we can get a bit more going up front."
